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Feeling Lost? Here's How to Get Back on Track · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Relish pleasing or zestful flavor a quantity
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  just sufficient to flavor to be pleased or
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  gratified by enjoy we are hoping that what
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  we bring to your table today might add some spice
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  to your life welcome back to another episode of relish ladies and gentlemen
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  i am rowan miller and this is don patterson it is actually yeah well i have
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  a name tag by my bed reminds me when I get up in the morning. Yes, I am who I am.
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  All right. Well, coming off the Fruits of the Spirit episode,
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  we'll have back to the question and answer.
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  Yes. Q&A. We'll start.
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  Embrace. Start firing them away here. Okay.
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  I've noticed talking to Christians, there'll often be a moment in their journey
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  where they kind of wish they would have did something different or like feeling
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  a nudge and they kind of resisted it or like,
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  is there, is there a time where that happened to you?
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  Like, you get what I'm saying there?
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  I, I, I found out early in my ministry, full, full fledged rebellion doesn't work well.
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  In other words, if you have to say, I did it my way, you probably shouldn't have done it.
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  But, oh man, yeah. Times when I thought I knew the best and didn't allow God to speak into it.
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  I think more in my situations, it was...
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  Forging ahead and not taking time for the Lord to, not taking time for the Lord
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  to speak into the situation. I thought, well, this needs to come next and this needs to come next.
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  And why are we taking it so slow?
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  Let's get moving. I'm a deep personality.
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  And so I tend to be one of those that forges ahead sometimes without good cause.
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  And then you reap the benefits of that Because without God's help,
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  especially in the work I do, without God's guidance, it can be detrimental.
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  So it's less that I did exactly opposite of what God wanted.
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  It's less rebellion in the outward.
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  It would be more rebellion in the inner where I thought, well, this is the next step.
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  Let's take it. yeah whereas when i
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  on the times when i allowed god to speak
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  or ran into a door that god himself would have to open then it was much more
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  recognizable that god was part of that so i have i'm probably more guilty of
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  running ahead of god than than actually rebelling yeah,
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  Unless he reveals something to me. I'm not thinking of it.
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  I imagine it's a long time, so all the stories aren't up to date.
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  But my fault is more running ahead of God. Yeah.
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  For just asking that question, one came to mind for me.
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  I was at the YMCA lifting one time. It was probably like two years ago or something.
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  And it was just me and this probably 60-year-old man.
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  He's a big dude. He's a big dude. Yeah, he started to ask me about what I was
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  going to do after high school, where I'm going in high school.
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  If I'm, and then if he eventually asked if I'm part of a church and I said,
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  yeah, I go to call him at night.
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  And he's like, it's like, that's good or whatever.
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  And then he kind of started talking about his life and he was kind of vague
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  with it, but kind of got the sense that he had a, like a bad church experience at some point.
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  And it's kind of like, he was kind of hating on churches a little yeah and lost
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  some money at casino and kind of stuff like that and then.
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  After kind of wrapped up the conversation and then he like just walked out of
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  the gym and like after he after he left I like got this idea like I should have
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  invited him to church like I don't know why it didn't hit me before,
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  but it's probably because I was 14 and he was 60.
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  A little age difference. Intimidating there, but I don't know.
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  I went home after that kind of just like kicking myself. Okay.
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  So let's unwrap that just a little bit. So we talked about Satan.
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  Yeah. Did you really do anything wrong?
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  Not really. Did God guide the conversation all the way to the end? Somewhat. Okay.
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  But Satan can trip you up by the shame. You went home saying,
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  I should have made sure he had got an invitation to KMC. I should have done
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  this and I should have done.
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  And I'm finding, and this is sort of a new relationship for an old fella,
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  that sometimes Satan can manipulate us through the shame.
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  Okay. I mean, he is the accuser, right?
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  That's the term, Satan is the accuser. And so maybe you did all right.
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  Maybe you did exactly what God gave you to do, and it was all right.
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  And the next conversation you might have with someone of similar,
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  you might be tempted to say, oh, I got to make sure he comes to colonom ennit next week.
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  Yeah. Is that going to be of God or is that going to be of you?
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  Probably of me. Well, and it may not be totally bad, but I would nudge you to
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  lean on that Holy Spirit piece of leading.
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  And when you walk away from the conversation, don't let Satan beat you up.
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  Don't give him a foothold, a stronghold of any kind of a way of attack.
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  And I'm finding he loves to attack us.
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  And in one way or another, the de-church, we call them de-churched,
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  those who have gone to church at one time and somehow had a bad experience and
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  no longer are interested in anything to do with church,
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  that population often are the ones that were involved in some of that.
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  I mean, they're feeling ashamed that they're not going to church,
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  but they really don't want to go to church because they were hurt.
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  And so there's a shame piece in there that continues to be cultivated.
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  And we need to help them understand that Jesus is the Christ the liberator.
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  Yes we want to keep his word yes we're going to walk in his way but we're going
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  to do it from the positive side because we want to in our relationship to him
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  and the guilt and shame stuff we're going to let Satan take to hell with him.
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  Sorry,
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  That's kind of like, we'll skip over that, but.
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  Well, we know that shame is a motivator. And in 2 Corinthians 3,
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  it's a motivator to get us back to where God wants us to be. And we confess our sins.
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  He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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  And if we say we don't sin, we make God out to be a liar. Isn't that the next verse? I think.
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  John 1, 9 and 10. And so we don't want to make God a liar. We know we're sinners.
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  We know we need His grace each and every day. But I'm just saying,
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  I'm not sure you need to carry any shame as a 14-year-old in that situation
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  if you'd been attentive to what the Spirit was nudging you to do.
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  Okay because you did yeah i mean you talked you listened you allowed him to speak it was good,
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  it was also kind of strange because when you're in a small town like colonna pretty much every time,
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  like i've went and lifted it's either people i
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  know in there or people i've seen in there before and i
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  i had never seen this guy before and i've
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  never seen him since since yeah like he
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  must show up at the gym like i do well yeah
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  yeah so okay that that shame aspect
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  you were talking about kind of sparks another
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  idea is when noah gave his like he
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  gave a sermon here you know your brother no my brother no yeah yeah and he said
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  afterwards he just felt like he felt awful like he totally bombed it and it
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  was terrible but if you listen to it he didn't yeah but satan does that does it to me every Sunday.
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  Every Sunday? Yeah, just the way it is. And you know what?
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  I'm willing to do that warfare.
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  I also am willing to go back and listen to it to make sure that I can do better next time.
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  Because I can always do better in my flesh. I can always do better for the Lord.
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  I have to listen to whether, did I give it all to God?
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  I mean, did I allow God's Holy Spirit to speak when I was in the pulpit?
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  If I held him back in any way, shape, or form, that's me. That's not God.
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  And I find, of course, now, as I'm old, I don't have that much to lose anymore.
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  I can speak more freely of what God puts on my heart. Yeah.
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  And it's really good to be my age. Yeah.
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  Yeah someday you you'll be there no we're kind
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  of getting off the questions we have gone down a rabbit trail
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  why can't lead us even farther oh okay yeah you
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  you always plan out a sermon and then when you pray before you always say lord
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  if you have anything else like let me say it so like how often do you actually
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  say what you have written out and like do you finish where your pages finished or?
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  I don't write out my sermons anymore. Okay.
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  I've given that up. Yeah. Because I found that writing out my sermon while it
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  was all well and good and had good stuff in it, but it came for me.
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  I do do my slides and use that as an outline.
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  Yeah. But so often the illustrations, the in-person kind of things come at the moment.
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  And so I thank the Lord for giving me more of those. Yeah. And I give him that freedom.
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  And I find, and I find as I get old, reading up front is not near as much fun as it used to be.
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  Bynchocles, you know, and things like that, and glare and all those good things.
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  But to me, it's been a growing edge to give the Lord more of the message to lead.
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  I think he leads in my study as well, because often when I'm in my study working
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  on the sermon, he'll bring things to mind that are important.
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  And so he leads by his spirit in the study as well as we're putting the message together.
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  But I really find it's exciting for me when I get something from the spirit while I'm preaching.
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  To me, that's good stuff. I enjoy that.
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  And I hope somebody else does too.
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  So, yeah, I hope it adds an edge to my preaching that I didn't used to have.
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  Yeah. All right. Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
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  So, how does Christ give us strength and what does that look like for us?
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  Well, I would take that back to the joy discussion in part, in the fact that
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  when he's painting in Philippians 4, he's talking almost end-life stuff.
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  And I'm not saying this because I'm in need, but because of what I know I need. Let's see.
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  It must be the chapter before that that he talks about, because I thought I
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  preached it at Grandma's funeral, that he knows that the time is coming.
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  I press on towards the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ.
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  And it seems like he's getting towards the end.
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  I know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings,
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  verse 10, becoming confirmed into his death.
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  He starts to paint a picture in chapter three that he continues in chapter 4
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  that he's getting towards the end of things.
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  And it's sort of as if he's doing it for the Philippians so that when he comes
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  down to this point, he says, I can do all things through him who strengthens
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  me. That's that joy piece.
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  Still, you have done well in sharing in my hardship and you Philippians yourselves
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  know that in the beginning, the good news, when I departed from Macedonia,
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  he's going back and saying, you know, God's been with us through all this.
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  And as I begin to face my end, I can do all things through him who gives me strength.
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  So it's almost the same as that joy that we talked about in an earlier episode,
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  that he's looking at death and,
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  pretty well got a death sentence. And even this, I can do this. Yeah.
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  As God gives me strength. I noticed Philippians 4.13 is probably like the most quoted by athletes.
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  Really? Yeah.
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  And rightly so. Yeah. Because back in 4, in chapter 3, he talks about the finish line.
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  Oh, yeah. And so, yeah. He's coming from an athletic background illustration.
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  Athletic illustration as going towards the finish line. Yeah.
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  I press on towards the goal 14 for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ.
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  So it's an athletic illustration that he's coming from. So it's, it's a good one.
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  So he can do all things, even baseball. Yeah.
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  Through him who gives you strength. Good. Yeah. Yeah.
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  All right. Should we do one more? We should do one more. All right.
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  This one will be a little shorter maybe, but is watching like a rated R movie a problem?
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  Or like, oh.
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  See, this is where I wish I was a bishop.
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  The bishops used to say, no, you cannot do that. You cannot do that.
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  That is not good for you at all.
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  And the rating system really isn't a Christian rating system.
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  It really doesn't have anything redeeming in that rating system.
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  I think we need to be just as careful with everything we see as if it were,
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  well, I mean, what is pornography?
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  I mean, basically, it is a use of someone in a way they were not meant to be.
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  And so the images and
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  the things that we see on the screen what do they do to us
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  what do they do for us and if they
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  don't do the right thing for
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  us we probably should be limiting their
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  activity but i think wasn't the hiding place wasn't
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  it an r-rated movie when it came out i mean it was so some of those movies that
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  yeah we really should see as christians oh passion of the christ Some of them
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  are just Yes They're like intense And And graphic Yeah I mean Passion of the
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  Christ Was very very graphic,
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  And that's got it It's our rating Yeah But it was a movie We probably ought to see In fact,
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  Probably I see it every year As Christians We probably ought to see The Passion
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  of the Christ Every year Just to remind ourselves Of what Christ went through.
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  In the flesh As our Christ to gain us freedom from sin.
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  We probably ought to endure it, if you will.
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  I remember the first time I saw it, I really, yeah, almost made us sick. Yeah.
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  But it made an impression that's lasting. Yeah.
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  So R-rated, if I was a bishop? No, no R-rated.
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  That movie, though, somebody would have to give an example and say,
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  yeah, you got to do that one.
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  So I'm not the bishop. God bless us. Yeah. All.
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  That means that we get to decide ourselves. What's going to draw us closer to
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  Christ and what's going to draw us farther from him? Yeah.
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  And, yeah, I don't need those distractions. there's a several distractions i
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  don't need yeah well thank you don for all all that,
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  you got some that you weren't planning on didn't we yeah that's great it's great
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  thank you guys for listening in and if you have any questions send them in that's
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  right and we'll got we got Don here who's been at it for 40 plus years.
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  So he'll give you the best. So. Well, give us what we got.
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  And we got some experience. Yeah. But we do hope a blessing for each and every one of you this week.
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  I don't think we say that often enough, but this, this, this podcast is not just for us.
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  We're, we're hoping that somehow it's scratched an itch either in your questions
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  or in your spiritual life that will draw you closer to Christ. That's the bottom line.
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  And hopefully it answered some
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  questions that you might be dealing with today. And may God bless you.
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  Well said. We'll see you next time. Thank you for joining us for this podcast.
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  Feel free to become part of this ministry by sharing with others.
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  Our goal is to help each other grow deeper in our understanding of who God is
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  and is calling to us in our daily lives.
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  Thank you again for joining us and may God bless your day.